Ahead of their first full season in their brand new ballpark, the Beloit baseball club has been renamed to honor long-time residents of the city that have now become the team’s newest and closest neighbors along the Rock River. Introducing the Beloit Sky Carp.
On Monday afternoon, the club debuted its new moniker that was selected by fans out of five possible choices. The new name was one of over 1,000 submitted by fans and won the fan vote among five finalists by a small margin. Coming in second by a small margin of less than 50 total votes was the Supper Clubbers. Cheeseballs, Polka Pike and Moo rounded out the fan vote in that order.
The on field product features four jerseys and caps designed by Brandiose, the same minds behind the creative branding of clubs such as the Amarillo Sod Poodles, Hartford Yard Goats and Rocket City Trash Pandas.
At the unveiling on Monday which was done by elementary school scholars, in place of players modeling the team’s new colors, community leaders were given the honor of being the first individuals to publicly don Sky Carp uniforms.
The unveiling this week was the last step in the process. But from the very beginning of the two year long process, Studer assured the team would be remade for the city of Beloit by the city of Beloit. The term sky carp is slang for a goose — but not just any goose. Indigenous to lower Wisconsin, the sky carp, unlike many other breeds of waterfowl, do not migrate from the region during the winter months. Like the good majority of their season ticket holders, sky carp are full-time Beloit residents.
Two of the four jerseys that will be worn by the Sky Carp have an uncommon characteristic: they both are emblazoned with the name of the home city. One of these is the traditional road gray; the other is an alternate jersey that can be worn either at home or on the road. Giving the Sky Carp the ability to honor their home city at ABC Supply Stadium was an important inclusion aspect for ownership.
Another sign of Quint Studer and his team’s commitment to the city of Beloit appears in the Sky Carp’s primary and third cap logo. One of the most aesthetically striking aspects of the rebrand, the wrench lends itself to the history of Beloit. The logo outlined in ‘Rock River Blue’ features the wrench being both clutched and bitten by the goose, figuratively paying homage to Beloit, a city that was made by blue collar workers and a city that is still building towards a more prosperous future. The wrench is modeled after one made by a local area manufacturer, Fairbanks Morse.
Within the Sky Carp’s third cap logo, their underwater goose emblem, the Sky Carp promote inclusion and honor one of the most prolific moments in Beloit history. The goose can be seen wearing aviator style goggles which honor a local icon, Bessica Raiche, the first woman to pilot an airplane on a solo mission in 1907. Raiche’s story is also becoming of the industrial background of Beloit: Raiche and her husband built her craft in their living room, utilizing a piano bench as a workspace. In order to get the craft, made out of bamboo, silk and wire to launch, the couple removed the front of their home.
As big as Monday was and as pleased as the team is to adopt a new name, there is still work to do in terms of adopting a new mascot. For that, the Beloit branding team will once turn once again to the same people responsible for bringing the Sky Carp name to Beloit: fans. Over the course of the next several weeks, Rock County schools will be asked to draw their version of the Sky Carp mascot, complete with a new name the club hopes to finalize before Opening Day 2022.
Although the club will be replacing a long-time stalwart in the Beloit community, Snappy the Turtle will not be completely gone. As Studer told us at the beginning of the season, the Beloit club will maintain the trademark to the Snappers allowing them to utilize the name on special occasions.
As a bonus to their hopeful connection to their home city, the new color scheme for the Sky Carp which was put in motion well before Beloit’s affiliation with the Miami Marlins should allow the club to connect with fans of the parent club’s popular 2019 rebrand.
This is a breaking story that will be updated shortly
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